Gaspar Claus is one of the French cellists disrupting traditional practices and has made a name for himself by blurring the traditional boundaries of the musical world. Under Tom Cora’s watchful instruction and characteristic freedom of experimentation, he blends popular and highbrow, melodious and raucous music, free from any prior assumptions. Alongside Jim O’Rourke, Angélique Ionatos, Peter Von Poehl and Serge Teyssot-Gay, this boundary-breaking freestyle artist is as comfortable with improvised music as with a contemporary, rock, jazz, pop and flamenco repertoire. This Solo celebrates the all the possibilities of his instrument.
At thirty-five years old, Gaspar Claus has already worked up an impressive CV, with a variety of disciplines as he moves from one world to another, blurring the lines between different genres. He trained at a very young age at the CNSM, Paris and used the incredible technical prowess he had acquired to expand the realm of possibilities and use the instrument fully (wood, metal, horsehair). His musical repertoire is impressive and includes improvised music (Merzbow, Jim O’Rourke, Serge Teyssot-Gay, Keiji Haino and the effervescent Japanese scene), contemporary music (Bryce Dessner), flamenco (his father Pedro Soler, Ines Bacan), pop (Barbara Carlotti, Peter Von Poehl), indie-rock (Sufjan Stevens), traditional music (Angélique Ionatos) and electro (Rone), etc.
With violinists Carla Pallone and Christelle Lassort, he founded the trio Vacarme, worked alongside French filmmaker Vincent Moon and contributed to the soundtrack of Emmanuel Gras’ film, Makala, which was recently recognised at the Cannes film festival. Gaspar Claus appears to reinvent himself for each project, in the name of freestyle creation, spontaneity and an unusual “permanent festival”. With his taste for versatile music and deliberately buccaneering underground approach, Gaspar Claus’ solo creation is coming to the Conservatoire chapel for one night only, featuring a melodious yet raucous, spontaneous yet thoughtful, technical yet free sound.
BIOGRAPHY
Gaspar Claus was born in 1983 to flamenco guitarist Pedro Soler. He began playing the cello aged five, studying at musical conservatories and at the CNSM, Paris, under the tutelage of Philip Muller. He soon encountered various disciplines, including contemporary dance (Nina Dipla, Moeno Wakalatsu, La Cavale), theatre (Anne Alvaro, Serge Pey, Jean-Claude Drouot), film and documentaries (Vincent Moon) and electronic music (Rone, Mahtab), extending his musical repertoire through his many artistic experiments. Working alongside Jim O’Rourke, Sufjan Stevens, Angélique Ionatos, Keiji Haino, Serge Teyssot-Gay, Bryce Dessner, Pedro Soler, Ines Bacan, Barbara Carlotti, Rover, Peter Von Poehl, Damo Suzuki and Scout Nibblet, with his trio Vacarme (with Carla Pallone and Christelle Lassort ) or for film (soundtrack for Emmanuel Gras’ recent film, Makala), Gaspar Claus has dabbled in all forms of music, always adding a breath of freedom and humanity. This remarkable, inspired and versatile celloist has succeeded in breaking down the boundaries between improvised music, contemporary music, flamenco, pop, jazz, rock, traditional music and indie-rock
DISTRIBUTION
Gaspar Claus : Cello
